Yellow Dog

This is what happens when the Bush administration's prescription drug program is designed to help big pharmaceutical companies instead of senior citizens. But if you are not helping to line the pockets of big CEOs and rich donors, you mean nothing to the Bush admin.

"Two weeks into the new Medicare prescription drug program, many of the nation's sickest and poorest elderly and disabled people are being turned away or overcharged at pharmacies, prompting more than a dozen states to declare health emergencies and pay for their life-saving medicines.

Computer glitches, overloaded telephone lines and poorly trained pharmacists are being blamed for mix-ups that have resulted in the worst of unintended consequences: As many as 6.4 million low-income seniors, who until Dec. 31 received their medications free, suddenly find themselves navigating an insurance maze of large deductibles, co-payments and outright denial of coverage.

'This new prescription drug plan was supposed to be a voluntary program to help people who didn't have coverage,' said Jeanne Finberg, a lawyer for the National Senior Citizens Law Center. 'All this is doing is harming the people who had coverage -- America's most vulnerable citizens.'"

But guess who it's helping? Insurance companies and big pharmaceutical companies. After all, with Abramoff and his cohorts goingto jail, Bush is going to need some new fundraising "pioneers."
The States Step In As Medicare Falters